New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity– Vol 11 Part2

A very good illustration of the value of this series is James Harrison’s discussion of the phrase ‘friend of Caesar’ (pp. 157ff in Vol. 11a).  It will be recalled that this phrase comes up in John 19.12.  And it is this threat– to go to the Emperor and tell him of how uncooperative Pilate was in the Jesus of Nazareth matter, which would have led to Pilate no longer being in the Emperor’s good graces (having already irritated Tiberius by upsetting the Jewish authorities when Pilate: 1) tried to put the Roman military standards (with the eagle) within the temple complex, and 2) confiscating funds from the temple treasury without permission, to build a reservoir in Jerusalem to hold needed rain water).  In short, Pilate could not afford to be on the Emperor’s naughty list, and face possible disgrace and exile.  In an honor and shame culture, being honored by the Emperor was everything in terms of governmental or political positions.   As Harrison rightly notes, inscriptions honoring Herod the Great as friend of Caesar have been found in Athens.  This status was extremely important even in. Judaea.  Harrison seems to think that Pilate was manipulating the crowd to make them affirm the need for being loyal , but it is far more likely that the Jewish authorities were doing this as a threat to Pilate who was already on dicey ground.   There are many more such examples of how knowing the nuances about the languages, the history, the social conventions, the literary and inscriptional evidence can help one understand the NT better.